ThreeFold Debates

At this point, nearly every online rpg
forum or newsgroup has seen has seen the concept of a Threefold put forth. At
its most basic, A Threefold model states that many of the core ideas driving
role-playing campaigns can be expressed in three terms, say for example
Simulation, Drama, and Game.

To my knowledge the first of these
appeared in rec.games.frp.advocacy in and around the summer of 1997 and is
detailed in the r.g.f.a
FAQ. This model was mostly concerned with how decisions are arrived at
rather than direct definitions of game systems. A simple example of that model:does a GM place a villain according to where he’d actually be
(Simulation), where needs of good drama requires him to be (Drama), or in a
location that he thinks would make for the most interesting test of skill for
the players (Game).

The original idea was to explain in a
simple way that people do different (or even the same) things in rpgs for
different reasons, a nice attempt to avoid the “You’re wrong, I’m right”
flame ridden threads of the time.

In common Internet fashion, the idea
spread from there to other locations and has now appeared in nearly every major
general rpg site on the internet, often in very different forms.

In every place a Threefold has
appeared, heated debate (and flame wars) quickly broke out. Almost to the extent
that there were (and are) times when other meaningful traffic was drowned out.
The arguments have gone on for so long, and with such passion, that some
regulars in each group are likely to treat any critic of their model as an
troll. It does however remain a good way to start a long and involved thread at
the drop of a hat, assuming such things suit you.

For
some reason, I get dragged into those debates. While not a passionate proponent
or opponent of the threefold concept, I do feel that that there are major
problems with the original model, as well as some interesting ideas. Rather than
repeat myself all the time, I thought I’d make my viewpoint clear here. That
way I can tell people to go read the website and hopefully move on to more
interesting discussions or at least something new in the age-old Threefold
debates. There are a number of subtopics in this subject, so
I've split them out in order to be able to direct people to those sections in
question at the time.